All about how God has blessed me. In my marriage, with my six children, through homeschooling, and our faith with recipes, large family living, and updates on our life.

When I was looking for things to do on our trip, I’d have to say a Zoo wasn’t at the top of my list. We had been to our Zoo here in September, and then again in April, and we have a good zoo. A really good zoo. But, see, here’s the thing. I love panda bears! And it has been a dream of mine since being a young girl to see a panda bear. When I was a kid the closest zoo that had them was in Washington DC. But when I clicked on the Zoo Atlanta page and the *first* thing I saw was that they had Panda’s – my mind was made up that THAT is where we were going!

When we got to Atlanta it was HOT! 107 degrees hot. It smelled hot. My hopes for the zoo were low, because I know that a lot of the times heat makes animals lazy! But the Zoo was great! Maybe the best we’ve ever been too! For a lot of their enclosures they had a glass wall so my little kids could walk right up and see in the enclosure without having to be picked up, climb up the walls or try to peer through fence holes. And the animals were very active, (except for the lion, who was taking an afternoon nap!)

The first and the last animal we saw was the elephants. I had just remarked to Brendyn about how the Red Georgia Clay when a grown woman went to the animal keeper to ask Why and How they had Red Elephants. I think it was all the keeper could do to keep a straight face and say it is our dirt that is red, not our elephants. It was interesting to note throughout the day, that they also had “red” warthogs, “red” and black zebras, “red” rhinoceros, and many other “red” animals!

At the end of the days like this, I always ask my kids what was their favorites. Brendyn’s favorite was the snake house. Literally a huge room filled with snakes, including the King Cobra (his favorite.), Madelynne’s favorite was the apes. We got to see a Mommy ape with its baby and watch them play together, and saw how the Mommy helped the baby go down a hill. Wyatt’s favorite was the Giraffe. Both Tyler and Adreya though, probably in a way to make brownie points with Mom, picked the Panda Bear.

The Panda was, of course, my favorite animal to see and I could have watched them ALL DAY! In the first enclosure, there were two smaller bears, one was napping and the other was wandering around. These enclosures had a glass front, so when the panda walked by, it was walking right in front of us. Even cooler was the bigger panda in the second enclosure. It was leaning against the glass, using its teeth to pull leaves off a bamboo shoot. Once it had plenty of leaves in its mouth, it would take the leaves out, roll them up burrito-style and eat them. It was really neat to watch!

With the panda leaning against the glass, you could put your hand on the glass and know the panda was right on the other side, just the glass separating you.You can see in this picture how close my kids were to the panda! Except for the spot where you see the wall, it looks like my kids were in with him! It was so easy to fall in love with those giant black and white bears all over again!

We have been blessed!

Five Special Blessings to Me Today: Seeing a panda (actually 3), Making new memories, Kids that behave well enough that we can have fun together, A husband who indulges me (even though we had been to the zoo twice and Busch Gardens in the last year and it was 107 degrees!), God’s wonderful creations